Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills Fire District voters said they wanted the ability to give funds to the three village’s libraries.

That much is understood. Just how that happens is less so at this point.

Determining the right course was the purpose of an Aug. 10 joint meeting of COMM’s three elected boards: the prudential committee, board of fire commissioners and board of water commissioners.

Chairman Carlton Crocker said that he’d fielded some questions from some of the other elected officials and wanted to get a sense from them on what they thought before moving ahead.

The prudential committee sent letters to the three state representatives who cover the three-village district. David Vieira of Falmouth responded and agreed to take the lead in moving any legislation forward. According to Crocker, Vieira is looking for guidance on just what the district is looking for. At this point, there is no answer to that question.

Crocker acknowledged that he wasn’t sure just how to proceed.

Some of the questions are basic, including who drafts the language and how far reaching should it be. Such guidance is lacking in the language voters approved.

Among the other questions tossed out by Crocker and others attending were: Would the district offer an annual warrant article, or would residents of the district? Is there a cap on how much of the library budget the district could provide? Do the voters need to sign off on the final legislation?

Perhaps the best summary of how the district might proceed came from Fire Chief John Farrington. He said the request of the voters was to get the ability to fund. It would then be up to the district to figure out the mechanics of how it would be done annually.

The sense of the joint meeting, during which no votes were taken, was that the district’s counsel, Doug Murphy, should be consulted on how to proceed.

Prudential Committee member David Lawler said that the district should work to ensure that it is in control of the legislation. “It would be certainly imprudent to give up control of that process,” he said.

The voter-petitioned article in May was drafted by library supporters from similar legislation approved for the Cotuit Fire District in 949 to provide district tax dollars to go to that village’s library.

The item passed in May, and survived a possible reconsideration twice for lack of a quorum. The three-member prudential committee recommended against the item, which was placed on the annual meeting warrant by library supporters. The same board is now responsible for following through with the request, although many of the same misgivings, and perhaps some more, remain.